Hey folks, so late last month, the Polygon team finally released their mainnet beta version of Polygon zkEVM — a fantastic combination of zero-knowledge proofs + Ethereum Virtual Machine — two pieces of tech that when put together, maintains the high security standards of the Ethereum network while also greatly reducing (and scaling) transactions.
I’m not a dev, so I’m not going to even pretend to try to explain how the technical details work, but I consider this to be very bullish news as cheaper (yet still highly secure) transactions will not only make the network easier to use, but also most likely encourage more widespread adoption. Personally after experiencing some of the astronomically high gas fees on Ethereum at the height of the last bull market, I’ve long ago transferred the majority of my holding over to L2s since the gas fees are drastically less by orders of magnitude. Therefore I’d imagine that Polygon’s zkEVM will do the same, as more and more people are looking to transact with lower gas fees.
Anywhoo, if you’re interested in how to bridge your assets over to Polygon zkEVM, there are several options available for you to do so. There’s pros and cons and each one, so before you bridge/swap in or out, it’s imporant to note the abilities (and limitations) of each bridge.
In no particular order we have:
bridge.zkevm-rpc.com
As perhaps the main “official” bridge over to Polygon zkEVM, my assumption is that it’s probably also the safest. The biggest drawback however is that you can currently only bridge back and forth from Ethereum Mainnet and Polygon zkEVM with 16 different assets. These include: ETH, MATIC, WBTC, USDT, USDC, DAI, LINK, CRV, BAL, LUSD, wstETH, stMATIC, cbETH, MaticX, AAVE, and LDO.
As far as I can tell, there are no external fees on bridge.zkevm-rpc.com, apart from higher gas fees having been sourced from Ethereum Mainnet.
Orbiter.Finance
A bit more robust, Orbiter Finance allows you to bridge assets to Polygon zkEVM from Ethereum Mainnet, but also nearly all other Ethereum L2s including: Polygon, Arbitrum (also Arbitrum Nova), Loopring, Optimism, Immutable X, Starknet, as well as Binance Smart Chain.
The downside of Orbiter however is that currently on most chains, you are only able to bridge over $ETH. Also I should note that although they advertise that their transfers are cheaper, they do charge an adjustable trading fee and a withholding fee which you can read more about in their docs.
Layerswap.io
Compared to the other options, Layerswap.io is a bit of a unicorn because in addition to being a regular bridge, it will allow you to essentially On-ramp or Off-ramp your $ETH directly from one of the following centralized exchanges:
On the regular cross-chain bridging side, you can transfer $ETH over from Ethereum Mainnet, Loopring, Arbitrum One, Solana, Kucoin Chain (KCC), Polygon Mainnet, ImmutableX, Optimism, Arbitrum Nova, and Binance Smart Chain.
As far as I can tell, like Orbiter the only asset you can bridge over currently is $ETH, and also there is a $0.5-$4.00 service fee, dependent upon your bridging source and destination.
app.multichain.org
If you’re unfamiliar with Multichain, it’s probably one of the most comprehensive multi-chain bridges, which currently allows bridging between zkEVM and 29 other chains (which I will not list out for posterity's sake).
Like many of the other options, Multichain currently only allows the transfer of $ETH, and according to their docs, has a cross-chain fee to a non-ETH chain set at $0.9-$1.90 per transaction and a 0.1% fee per transaction to an ETH-chain.
Conclusion
I’m extremely excited about what the Polygon team has been doing, and I think that this is just one step towards a massive migration to zkEVM. And just as many of the L2s have tapped liquidity from Ethereum Mainnet, I would imagine that zkEVM will do the same. And if you haven’t found any reasons to bridge over already, this sweet (free) inaugural NFT from the 0vix crew should be reason enough:
And speaking of 0vix, a big shoutout to all the 0vix chads especially PAPA GØGØ, CryptoMax, and Retrø in the 0vix discord for help me getting this sorted out.
Thanks for taking the time to read this and if you have used any other bridges that I haven’t listed in this article, please feel free to let me know in the comments below. And once again, be sure to follow me on twitter (https://twitter.com/CryptosWith) to get all my latest updates. Also, looking for a gift for your Crypto-loving/hating friend? Give them a REKT journal to cheer them up!
Disclaimer: None of this information is financial advice, and is just speculation from me, a random guy on the internet. Please consider this for purely educational and entertainment purposes. As always, please do your own research or contact a financial advisor to find what investments might be best for you.
